We attended a thought provoking workshop run by the Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Project which aims to define how digital design, manufacture and distribution tools can be matured and enhanced to provide a competitive edge to the UK’s creative industry.
The project is in its second stage (first report can be found here http://bit.ly/dZpltN ) and the workshop explored 3 scenarios set five years in the future, where fictitious companies can produce completely customisable products that are able to be manufactured locally. So remove the large factories producing furniture in a hope that people would buy it and replace it with a digitally driven, on-demand model. What challenges does this pose to the user, to government, to the manufacturer and to the designer? From printing an exhaust for a car on demand to designing your own house, what are the steps the user must go through and how does the manufacturers offering change?
After a fascinating three hours of hammering out ideas, solutions and problems the consensus was that there are many hurdles that need to be over come from all parties. There needs to be an emphasis on governments to open up its data so developers can build applications e.g. using a geo tagged photo of a prospective plot an application can consult with the local planning authority and recommend the type, size and style of house that would gain planning permission, that then ties into a Facebook application that works out the type of people who live in the area. The one idea that really made us think was the desperate need for creative collaboration forums, places for people from different industries to meet and share knowledge and ideas, to push forward innovation. It is places like http://www.fablabmanchester.org/ where creatives, engineers, designers and users can come together and collectively work and share knowledge.
RT @RamonSmit: Is er een PHP programmeur die verstand heeft van de twitter API aanwezig? #goeievraag #durftevragen #help #HELUP
See you there!